Mateo may be the best story of the Orioles season...

[now]

I'm a big fan of Mateo and what he's been doing lately, but tonight (5-3 loss to ChiSox) it seemed some maturity and patience would have helped. Seventh inning, bases loaded (again), two runs down, one out, and the pitcher was wild, four-pitch walk to Odor. Instead of taking a few pitches, Mateo lunges at the first one and tries to repeat his bases-clearing double down the line, but instead Moncada snares it to start a DP. Maybe it was a good bet on a fastball or something, but I'd like to see some patience there and passing the baton to the top of the order, in that situation.  

[ShoelesJoe]

8 minutes ago, now said:

I'm a big fan of Mateo and what he's been doing lately, but tonight (5-3 loss to ChiSox) it seemed some maturity and patience would have helped. Seventh inning, bases loaded (again), two runs down, one out, and the pitcher was wild, four-pitch walk to Odor. Instead of taking a few pitches, Mateo lunges at the first one and tries to repeat his bases-clearing double down the line, but instead Moncada snares it to start a DP. Maybe it was a good bet on a fastball or something, but I'd like to see some patience there and passing the baton to the top of the order, in that situation.  

It was bad luck. The pitcher threw a strike, and Mateo was on it. Normally that ball is into the LF corner, and it clears the bases. This time the 3rd baseman was playing on the line, and he still barely snagged it and then made a great play. Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes it eats you. 

[DrungoHazewood]

6 hours ago, now said:

I'm a big fan of Mateo and what he's been doing lately, but tonight (5-3 loss to ChiSox) it seemed some maturity and patience would have helped. Seventh inning, bases loaded (again), two runs down, one out, and the pitcher was wild, four-pitch walk to Odor. Instead of taking a few pitches, Mateo lunges at the first one and tries to repeat his bases-clearing double down the line, but instead Moncada snares it to start a DP. Maybe it was a good bet on a fastball or something, but I'd like to see some patience there and passing the baton to the top of the order, in that situation.  

Didn't you hear Dave Johnson?  He was practically begging Mateo to swing at the first pitch, since the pitcher hadn't thrown a strike yet so there was every chance he was going to groove one to get it over.  And the pitcher was expecting Mateo to have the take sign knowing he'd thrown four straight balls, so it was unlikely he was concerned about Mateo swinging.

Dave Johnson was a DH-era pitcher and perhaps not an analytical genius, but that does kind of make sense. Mateo just hit the ball in exactly the wrong place.

[waroriole]

7 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Didn't you hear Dave Johnson?  He was practically begging Mateo to swing at the first pitch, since the pitcher hadn't thrown a strike yet so there was every chance he was going to groove one to get it over.  And the pitcher was expecting Mateo to have the take sign knowing he'd thrown four straight balls, so it was unlikely he was concerned about Mateo swinging.

Dave Johnson was a DH-era pitcher and perhaps not an analytical genius, but that does kind of make sense. Mateo just hit the ball in exactly the wrong place.

At the time he said it, it made sense to me. When I saw the swing I thought ole Dave did it again. Just a really nice play, and good positioning by Moncada

[Aristotelian]

Mateo hit the ball hard, that is all you can ask for. The worst mistake he made during that game was going to first instead of third on the ball in the hole, but he nearly got the runner. Probably a bang bang play either way.

[sportsfan8703]

Just some bad luck last night. When Mateo came up I thought “Well, we’ll get one in here because he won’t hit into a double play.”